Hybrid raytracing is known in the art as a combined process of rasterizaton and raytracing. Initially, fragments, e.g., pixels, which do not include any reflective or refractive surfaces are rasterized. A raytracing operation is subsequently performed for the pixels which include reflective or refractive surfaces. Within the raytracing operation, the primary ray is typically skipped, and a secondary ray is generated from the intersected surface point which is used to calculate a reflection or refraction for the rendered image. The rasterized and raytraced images are blended or merged to form a composite image.
Within the initial rasterization process, two rasterization operations are performed. In a first operation, the pixels which are not to be raytraced are rasterized. In a second operation, the primitive identifiers for the pixels are rasterized. This two step rasterization process delays the generation of the rasterized image, and rendering of the overall composite image.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for reducing rasterization delay in hybrid raytracing systems.